Monday, October 7, 2013

Day 7: Getting Lost

Early to bed and Early to rise….gets my ass to Key Largo before dark.  Seriously, that was the whole plan for today.  Haul ass down the length of Florida, check on the truck and trailer at the Miami airport ( I dropped it off a couple of weeks before) and roll onto Key Largo while singing Bertie Higgins (don’t fight it, it’s good for you.)

First off, I roll all the way down to Florida to freeze my ass off.  Seriously, it had to be in the upper 40’s when I woke up at 5.  Full winter gear and long underwear just barely cut the bite of the wind.  The first hour was pretty rough. 

I think I stopped in Crystal River to get breakfast and coffee.  At this point things were warming up and I was starting to relax.  I was kind of looking forward to Tampa.

Out of all the routes I took on this trip, this was the one I spent the most time planning.  I wanted to stay close to the coast but that route added hours to the trip.  I wish I would have had another day to get a feel for this part of Florida.  I am pretty sure I could live down here.

Instead I took 19 all the way down through Tampa to save time.  My phone was trying to get me killed. The navigation would work for 5 minutes at a time and then the phone would shut down…just before I passed a ramp with no signs.  So, I got a little lost in Tampa and ended up at the Shriner's International Headquarters.  I’ve already written another post about this one so I’ll just say that I am really glad I got lost.  It was a high point of the trip and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.

South of Tampa, I crossed this big beautiful bridge:


The Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge

About half way across the bridge I realized that it was no longer cold.  It was, in fact, really hot.  It would stay that way for the rest of the trip.

I stopped on the other side of the bridge to ditch the winter gear and get some coffee. I struck up a conversation with a very much older guy (70’s) on a small Honda Shadow.  We talked about fuel efficiency and lifetimes of riding.  He was on a tour of the south, moving from couch to couch, visiting relatives.  In one of the recent Carl Hiassen books (read him, he’s fucking great), there is a retired cop who spends his time riding his Harley up and down Florida.  That is literally his retirement life.  I ran into many people who I thought might be living this way.  You could get used to it.

In any case, I got turned around and headed back the wrong way over the bridge. I stopped again to take pictures.  







Then I set out to make some time.  I didn’t really mind repeating this bridge, it is breathtaking, even the third time ‘round.

Not much to see or say about the next few hundred miles.  Mostly just turnpike.  I enjoyed the speed though.  It felt good to open ‘er up and just cruise for a few hours.  Then it was time to turn east across Florida.  It was basically just swamp and brushlands all the way across the state. 

Credit: Google Maps

Guess what, I got lost in Miami.  Really goddamned lost. Then a miracle occurred.  My phone turned out to be a game-day player.  The turn-by-turn got me to the airport! A quick word about Miami. Felt a lot like home (Houston). Warm and busy. Vibrant and cramped but in a good way.  I feel comfortable there. 

After a couple of hours in the traffic I was headed down the turnpike to Key Largo.  Key Largo is not what I expected.  It isn’t particularly beautiful and there is just enough development to kill some of the natural beauty of the island.  It wasn't all bad though.






My campsite, however,  was terrible.  Dark and tiny with no view of anything but the Poisonwood forest between me and the bay.  I should have said hell with it and stayed in a hotel.

In any case, I got unpacked and set up camp. I crashed out pretty early because I was so damned tired from the ride. 

At some point around midnight, I heard a bell ringing outside my tent.  Apparently one of the local boys (probably a raccoon) found the package of week-old hot dogs in my fishing kit and was dragging the whole damn thing off into the woods. I was too tired to care and went back to sleep.

Besides, everything would be amazing tomorrow.  J and the kids would be flying into Miami and driving down to Key Largo to meet me. These were my happy last thoughts of the day.